


Loud is Relative

by F-117 Nighthawk (F117_Nighthawk)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Sensory Overload, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepy Cuddles, aliens that Will Not give the Paladins a break, but I'm known to hesitate to categorize a looooooot of stuff so, kinda? I mean it's mostly based off of my experience and I hesitate to categorize it as that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-21 22:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11954289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F117_Nighthawk/pseuds/F-117%20Nighthawk
Summary: All the Paladins arereally effing tiredafter five days of meetings and diplomacy with little to no sleep. Keith's been operating on two hours of sleep a night and slowly building sensory overload and is Not. Happy.





	Loud is Relative

**Author's Note:**

> the title of this in my google drive is "what happens when I'm sleep deprived"

Planet Aetra was entirely ruled by time. Keith’s entire problem, though, was that Aetra wasn’t ruled by  _ universal standard _ time, it was ruled by its  _ own _ time. How these people could be so technologically advanced and yet not accept the universal standard time was beyond him. 

He supposed it might have had something to do with the fact that the Aetrans looked like primitive sundials. 

In any case, it was horribly annoying. Aetra’s days were longer than Earth’s or UST days, and nights shorter. The Aetrans also believed in punctuality and never going over a time limit as well as never wasting any time. These factors combined meant that they were out on planet for  _ entirely too long. _ And they were supposed to be here for six Earth days. Six days of getting up at what was 0430 Earth time, meetings, demonstrations, inspections, and diplomacy until 2330, back to the castle, sleep for four hours, then back to it. All because they had to be  _ punctual. _

That was four hours of sleep  _ max. _ Add in the fact that for some reason Keith’s insomnia was acting up he was getting maybe two hours max, likely one or less if he was being honest. He’d tried everything he could think of, training until he passed out, mind games, just lying in bed daydreaming, nothing worked.  

At the end of the fifth day Keith was basically asleep on his feet. Everyone else looked like they were close. Pidge had flopped down on the cushions in the common room, groaning about how far the walk was to her bed. Hunk had sat down by her feet and leaned back into the cushions, eyes closed and agreeing with Pidge. Even Shiro and Allura looked worse for wear, sitting on the cushions rubbing their eyes in an eerie mirror of each other. Coran and Lance looked the most chipper out of all of them; Coran was leaning against the wall behind Allura while Lance was sitting on the edge of the sunken cushions with his feet by Pidge’s head. Keith himself was standing by the door, half of him wanting to cover his ears and bolt and hide somewhere where he could actually get some rest and ease himself out of the almost-sensory-overload state he’d been in since breakfast and the other half wanting to grab Lance and get all the cuddles he desperately wanted (For some reason touch helped pull him out, as long as the person wasn’t being very loud. Which Lance was surprisingly good at). 

“Alright, Paladins, good work today, let’s get some rest, we’ve got to get up soon.”

“Allura, we can’t take another day.”

All eyes swiveled to Lance, who was glaring at the princess. “We’ve done nothing but meetings for pretty much five days straight  _ without even the minimum amount of sleep required by humans.” _

“Lance, I know, but we can’t blow this off. The Aetrans are a very particular species and they will be offended if all of us don’t attend.”

“We’re all exhausted, even you! Someone’s gonna have to carry Pidge back to her room, Hunk’s gonna walk into a wall, Shiro’s probably gonna just sleep walk back, I can  _ see _ the circles under your eyes, Coran hasn’t regaled me with a single insane tale in the past three days, I’m  _ tired, _ and Keith’s as slow as a zombie.” Lance walked over to Keith and grabbed his hand. “See? Normally you’d react to that to like, throw me across the room or something but you’re just blearily staring into space.”

Keith blinked at him. “Ever consider that I just trust you instinctually now and that’s why my defensive reflexes aren’t going to react for you?”

Lance looked at him and then turned beet red. “Keeeeeeiiithhhhhh! You can’t just  _ say  _ things like that!”

Keith cocked his head in confusion. “Like what? I love you, why would I not trust you instinctually?”

Keith began to be worried he said something wrong when Lance somehow managed to turn even more red and froze up in front of him. “Lance?”

Whatever else was about to come out of his mouth was cut off when Lance grabbed his face and pulled him in to kiss him. Keith melted into Lance, his touch, his warmth, his solid weight. It was grounding but at the same time sent him floating through space. Every sense was overcome with  _ Lance Lance Lance, _ his body singing. Eventually Lance pulled back for air, but rested his forehead on his. “I love you too,” Lance whispered. 

Keith heard Pidge making gagging noises somewhere on his left. “Look, they’re both so sleep deprived they’re getting really sappy,” she joked, “If Keith is getting sappy then we all need sleep.” Keith peeked over Lance’s shoulder and saw Shiro smiling at them softly, Pidge smiling despite her gagging noises and Hunk doing some fist-pump thing.

“As much as I would like to give you a rest, I simply can’t. The Aetrans are a valuable ally that we cannot afford to offend.”

“Allura,” Shiro started, “We can’t exist like this without snapping. We’ve been fighting for a week straight, and now we’re basically unable to sleep.”

Lance turned to rejoin the argument, but left his hand curled around Keith’s. “You can’t expect us to function with six days straight of meetings. I’m honestly surprised no one’s snapped yet but I can assure you that someone is  _ going _ to and it might be during something important.”

“I cannot risk our alliance-”

Pidge interrupted her with a yell:  _ “Allura, we are going to fall asleep during a meeting soon. _ I’m  _ pretty sure _ that’s more of a risk to the alliance.”

Keith shut down at that point, the little bit of noise just too much. He’d lost what little bit of grounding Lance had provided him. He registered Pidge ranting about how this was bad for their health and how did she expect them to be able to fight if need be like this but didn’t process it. Everyone was talking at once and they were so loud and he could hear the Castle humming underneath it all and the ticks of the lights and the lower hum of the ventilation system and the voices tearing across the soundscape like a claw. The mice were squeaking somewhere and it was so high pitched and he needed it to all just  _ go away.  _ His shoulders were up to his ears, body tense as a guitar string, hands moving to clamp over his ears. He could sense Lance moving when he let go of his hand and said, “Keith?”

“STOP!” he yelled, “Just, just  _ stop. _ There’s too much  _ noise _ already can you just  _ shut. UP.” _

Blessed silence descended on the room. Even the mice were quiet, the only noises in the room coming from the Castle itself. Keith was concentrating on not moving, eyes squeezed shut against the overwhelmed tears that threatened to spill out, fingers tangled in his hair and thumbs pressing the little bit of cartilage in the front of the ear back, doing a more effective job of cutting the sounds out. He could hear his heartbeat and focused on it, focused on anything but every other sound in the room. 

A familiar hand gently touched his elbow, then drifted up to gently unwind his hand from his hair. He opened his eyes slowly to find Lance leaning down, looking concerned. He closed his eyes again and let Lance lead him out of the room. He heard the whoosh of the door as it opened and closed behind them, then nothing but the soft humming the castle always made, Lance’s breathing, his own heartbeat, and their soft footsteps. Keith slowly lowered his other hand from his ear, the noise much more bearable now. He only opened his eyes when they stopped, to find Lance glancing between their doors. Seeming to make a decision Lance opened Keith’s door and pulled him in. He pushed him down on the bed and started digging through Keith’s drawers. He prized out some red pajamas and tossed them at Keith. “Put these on, I’ll be right back,” he whispered, then left the room. 

Keith blinked at the pajamas in his hands which he had literally never worn before. They looked exactly like Lance’s, but in the Red Lion’s colors. Internally shrugging he tossed his belt and shoes by the small desk and hung his jacket on the pin. His hands were shaking now, and Keith glared at them. He hated it when his body betrayed him, showed weakness, showed how fucked up his brain was. Normal people didn’t get thrown over the edge by someone talking just a little louder than was strictly necessary. They probably weren’t even being that loud. 

Dammit he’d probably messed up badly with that outburst. He’d learned long ago that no one tended to take him seriously when he pointed out an annoying noise that no one else seemed to be able to hear, no one took him seriously when he said somewhere was too noisy, no one took him seriously when he asked them to please, _ please, shut up. _

HIs internal panic was pushed back slightly when Lance walked back into the room, clad in his own pajamas and with a pair of headphones in his hand. Lance took in the fact that he was just standing in the middle of the room still in his clothes and set the headphones down on the desk. He stood in front of Keith and gently took hold of his hands. “Keith,” he whispered, “What do you need.”

Keith needed reassurance that he wasn’t crazy, but considering all the other shit in his brain that was never going to happen. He settled for stepping forward and burying his face in Lance’s neck. Lance’s arms came up to wind around him, one hand running gently through his hair the other nestled on the small of his back. He could hear and feel Lance’s breathing and heartbeat, which was weirdly calming. Lance’s breathing was steady and deep, his heartbeat the steady beat of waking. They stayed there for a while until Keith no longer felt the stinging of tears in his eyes and his hands had stopped shaking.

“They-they weren’t being that loud, were they?” his voice came out small and terrified.

“That’s relative.”

His eyebrows scrunched down, confused. “What?”

“If you thought we were being loud, then we were being loud. Loud is one of those things that the definition is fluid depending on the situation. I think you are completely justified for thinking that we were being loud.” Lance was still whispering, basically in Keith’s ear.

Keith pulled back slightly so he could see Lance’s face. His eyes were honest and caring, pleading with Keith to be all right. “Stay with me?” he whispered. He wanted the contact, the solid weight of someone to lean against, reassurance that he didn’t have to deal with everything himself. 

Lance nodded and pulled him towards his bed, helping Keith slip into the pajamas he had yet to put on. He hesitated next to the bed, but Keith lay down and pulled Lance in next to him. They shifted a bit and ended up with Lance on his back, Keith on his stomach half-on-top of Lance, Lance’s hand rubbing Keith’s back. “Love you,”

Keith shifted his head just enough that he could see Lance’s expression, open and awed, full of love. “Love you too,” he said and then finally, finally, drifted off to sleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> .......I should be reading Crime and Punishment for AP Lit right now but instead I'm writing about various characters that Need To Sleep. Oh well?


End file.
